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04 Jun 2009, 16:57

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51%(02:01) correct
49%(00:56) wrong based on 285 sessions

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244. Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another century, but financially strained townships point out that dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads.(A) dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does for paved roads(E) to maintain dirt roads costs twice as much as for paved roads

Why is D wrong and what exactly option D means? I thought 'it' in option D refers back to 'maintaining' and 'does' to 'costs' .. is n't it?

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Re: Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another [#permalink]

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02 Sep 2010, 06:35

244. Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another century, but financially strained townships point out that dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads.(A) dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does for paved roads(E) to maintain dirt roads costs twice as much as for paved roads

in my opinion..the oa should be Das in B..it is as if we are comparing dirt roads with maintaining paved roads..and not maintaining dirt roads with maintaining paved roads

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02 Sep 2010, 08:40

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B it is.

Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another century, but financially strained townships point out that dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads.

(A) dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads - incorrect comparosin(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do [cost to maintain].(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it [maintaining] does for paved roads- awkward, wordy(E) to maintain dirt roads costs twice as much as for paved roads - awkward

Re: Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another [#permalink]

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06 Nov 2013, 21:28

Hello:

Any help would be appreciated!

Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another century, but financially strained townships point out that dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads.

(A) dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does for paved roads(E) to maintain dirt roads costs twice as much as for paved roads

OA B.I narrowed down to BCD.

But immediately discarded C because I thought (C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do (cost).. not cost of MAINTAINING

Then I was in between B&D and thought (B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do (cost)?TO MAINTAIN is in between "as much as" construction.

So I thought (erroneously) that the meaning in B could be either:

1... as paved roads do COST OR 2....as paved roads DO COST TO MAINTAIN

OR EVEN A THIRD OPTION:(silly one) as paved roads DO cost twice as much to maintain

Really I DON'T KNOW for what exactly "do" stands for in B, and HOW to learn this rule!! (I guess that is the 5th time that I got this question wrong!)

My reasoning was then by POE: (D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it[maintaining] does [costs] for paved roads

Re: Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another [#permalink]

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07 Nov 2013, 13:24

ricardocs84 wrote:

Hello:

Any help would be appreciated!

Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another century, but financially strained townships point out that dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads.

(A) dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does for paved roads(E) to maintain dirt roads costs twice as much as for paved roads

OA B.I narrowed down to BCD.

But immediately discarded C because I thought (C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do (cost).. not cost of MAINTAINING

Then I was in between B&D and thought (B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do (cost)?TO MAINTAIN is in between "as much as" construction.

So I thought (erroneously) that the meaning in B could be either:

1... as paved roads do COST OR 2....as paved roads DO COST TO MAINTAIN

OR EVEN A THIRD OPTION:(silly one) as paved roads DO cost twice as much to maintain

Really I DON'T KNOW for what exactly "do" stands for in B, and HOW to learn this rule!! (I guess that is the 5th time that I got this question wrong!)

My reasoning was then by POE: (D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it[maintaining] does [costs] for paved roads

Please any light in this issue would be really appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Ricardo

As per my knowledge, I will try to answer your Question about B

(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do..

verbs are generally not explicitly stated in comparison when meaning & comparison are clear. If you place missing verb, B reads as "dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do [cost]"..

Its grammatically correct even if the sentence reads as "dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do [cost to maintain]".

My POEis always just to place the missing verb and then check for the following1) Verb Tense2) Parallelism3) Meaning or comparison

B is correct in all those aspects

(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do

Comparison is wrong in C. cost of Maintaining dirt roads is compared with cost of paved roads. The correct choice will compare "cost of Maintaining dirt roads is compared with cost of maintaing paved roads"

(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does for paved roads

2 errors in D1) What does "it" refer to? 2) Place missing verb in the sentence " maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does [costs] for paved roads"..Its sounds bad.
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Re: Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another [#permalink]

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07 Nov 2013, 16:12

D is wrong, I thought that (D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it[maintaining] does [costs] for paved roads.And yes it sounds bad.

I thought:

it = pronoun of maintainingdoes = pronoun of costs

In (B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do (cost to maintain, not just the cost of the road itself!)

Some really good instructor gave some good examples of this case:

E.g.,French bulldog puppies cost more than Samoyed puppies.French bulldog puppies cost more than Samoyed puppies do.^^ These sentences discuss the cost of purchasing the puppies themselves.

French bulldog puppies cost less to feed than Samoyed puppies.French bulldog puppies cost less to feed than Samoyed puppies do.^^ These sentences discuss the cost of feeding the dogs, not the cost of purchasing them.

You do need a certain degree of parallelism. (E.g., here, "do" needs a verb, "cost", to which it can be parallel.) Beyond that, though, it's mostly just common sense.

If for some reason you wanted to compare the cost of feeding one of the puppies with the cost of purchasing the other one -- for whatever reason -- then you'd have to write a sentence that's very specific about that intention.E.g., It costs more to purchase a French bulldog puppy than to feed a Samoyed for ten years.

Re: Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another [#permalink]

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01 Apr 2016, 08:02

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Re: Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another [#permalink]

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19 May 2016, 13:44

Yes B is correct. D sounds simply awkward. In A it is not clear whether they are talking about building dirt roads or maintaining dirt roads. The same counts for answer choice C. I was tempted to go with C but B is definitely the better choice. E = terrible English! Not good.

Do we have an approximate difficulty level for this question? Just curious. I did pretty well on the SC section of my last GMAT which was the only section I did well on.

ugimba wrote:

244. Dirt roads may evoke the bucolic simplicity of another century, but financially strained townships point out that dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads.(A) dirt roads cost twice as much as maintaining paved roads(B) dirt roads cost twice as much to maintain as paved roads do(C) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as paved roads do(D) maintaining dirt roads costs twice as much as it does for paved roads(E) to maintain dirt roads costs twice as much as for paved roads

Why is D wrong and what exactly option D means? I thought 'it' in option D refers back to 'maintaining' and 'does' to 'costs' .. is n't it?